Sustainability Update

Did You Know?

Friday, Jul. 1, 2011

The solar panel system on Benson Memorial Center is the largest project of its kind built to date in California.

The panels don't make electricity... they use concentrated solar energy to heat water. The Chromasun MCT panels will produce an estimated 6,727 therms of energy annually and heat water to 200 degrees Fahrenheit for Benson Memorial Center’s dining services. Heating water with solar energy rather than with natural gas will reduce the building’s water-heating bills by as much as 70 percent and offset 34 tons of CO2, equivalent to the total emissions produced annually by 6.6 automobiles. The system will help SCU reach its goal of becoming climate neutral by the end of 2015.

The collectors are manufactured at a Chromasun facility in San Jose. The workforce at this facility includes former New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) autoworkers that were re-trained as solar manufacturing experts after the NUMMI facility closed and put back to work building Chromasun modules.